Portland club Embers to be replaced with similar venue

PORTLAND — Embers Avenue, a gay dance club and venue that has served Portland since the early 1970s, held its final dance party Thursday night.

But while Portlanders mourn this venerable institution, those looking for a place to dance will be happy to learn what the company that owns the building at 110 N.W. Broadway isn’t planning.

“We’re not building apartments and we’re not tearing the building down,” Craig Sweitzer, managing partner of Urban Glisan LLC, said by phone Thursday.

Instead, Sweitzer said, his company, which has owned the building since 2014, plans to find a new operator to run a similar dance venue that will continue to serves the city’s LGBTQ community.

In fact, he said, Urban Glisan has already identified a potential operator, a company that operates similar clubs elsewhere in the U.S. While he can’t reveal its name until contracts are signed, he said, “They are very interested in this location and building.”